


I got no plans for tomorrow night

by DancingInTheRain



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: I don't know the plot of AOU, M/M, and Steve's sentence "I got no plans for tomorrow night", just some vague assumptions based on the trailers, post AOU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 17:32:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3659046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancingInTheRain/pseuds/DancingInTheRain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Steve comes home after defeating Ultron, there's a surprise waiting in his apartment...</p>
            </blockquote>





	I got no plans for tomorrow night

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched the trailers for Age of Ultron and when Steve said his "I've got no plans for tomorrow night" my brain coughed and this is what came out...
> 
> Please register that I have no idea whatsoever what will or will not happen in The Age of Ultron...this is based on assumptions I have from the trailers. I tried to keep it all very vague

He didn’t mean anything by it, saying those words out loud. Maybe he thought he could wake Tony’s humanity and his compassion – which he already had, he just didn’t know it half of the time – with that sentence. Or maybe it was a sentimental statement, it just slipped out of his mouth on instinct. Others before himself, it had always been this way. Steve didn’t like bullies. Not now, not back then. Period.

And if those bullies were metal creatures created by a giant cyborg AI that had broken free, so be it. To protect mankind, that was Steve’s mission. Steve’s, not Captain America. How he hated those propaganda lines sometimes, politicians who wanted to shake his hand and be seen with him for the publicity only. He had tried, at first. Had met senators and promising rising figures both from the Republicans and the Democrats. They had been all smiley and considerate on the outside, as long as the cameras were there; but once they went backstage and Steve tried to engage, talk about topics that were important to him, health care, education

_Because he knows how it was back then, how there was no health care and yes, people died of a simple cold sometimes because they didn’t even have heating in their buildings and if you were born into the right family there was no chance to get a good job, not even to go to a proper school because everything was about money, money, money…_

Nearly everyone he had met after defrosting had tried to show or tell him that now, the world was a better place. Most of them did it unconsciously, without thinking about it. Sam, Bruce, Clint – they all had their fare shades of “Look how the world is now a better place, Steve” and most of the times, Steve agreed. To be openly gay, transgender, asexual, bi, all those terms they didn’t know in the forties – but the people had been there nonetheless, the problems and the suffering being different mostly caused – was a definite improvement, one that Steve supported with every fiber of his being. 

Be damned how America’s public wanted to see the Captain, how he still was their symbol for what they called “tradition” and “conservative”. It made him sick, hearing his name together with those words. Those times, it was harder than others to keep his mouth shut and not tell them how it really was, who _he_ really was. He somehow managed, though. Because he knew it would hardly change those people’s opinion or course; he had learned so painfully in the first months after waking up to a world that had changed in its entirety. 

There were different ways for him to make a stand, to show what was important to him and to make a difference. What he accomplished with the Avengers was a good start for that. Defeating Ultron had been a good start.

The price had been high, no doubt. But it had been worth it.

Coming home to his apartment was both grounding and oddly depressing at the same time. The worst part was doing so with empty hands. “We’ll find a way, I swear to you, Capsicle, I’ll find a way to replace that shield and if it’s the last damn thing I’m gonna do”, Tony had sworn, very seriously and determined, already stomping away to his lab, barking out orders to JARVIS, leaving Pepper and Steve behind a little helplessly.

Now, entering those familiar four walls without the shield left Steve feeling oddly naked. ‘It will be alright’, he thought to himself, ‘Tony will find a way’. He’s nervous and he doesn’t know why. He’s strong, physically stronger than most, he has hast healing; he doesn’t particularly _need_ the shield to defend himself. But still, it’s his weapon. His protection. His companion.

Steve’s so lost in thought he registers too late he’s not along in his apartment. There’s someone sitting at his kitchen table in the dark. Once his brain registers the intruder, he jumps back, reaching at his back on instinct- but the shield isn’t there. He takes up a defensive pose, again on instinct, his mind racing with the images of the fights they have just been through. There’s a glint of metal and _oh God, not again!_

Only the intruder doesn’t move. Stays at the table, sitting quietly, observing, while Steve inches back until the wall is in his back, breath going way too fast. For a long moment, there is silence.

“I heard you didn’t have any plans for tonight”, a voice rings out and Steve wants to pass out, his breath hitching. If he didn’t know any better, he’d suspect the Scarlet Witch, planting images and voices in his head to distract him. But Wanda is far away and has no interest in mind games with the Avengers anymore. 

So this must be real.

Knees suddenly weak, Steve sinks to the floor, landing in a heap of shivering limps and muscles. 

“Bucky”, he breathes. 

Steve can’t grasp what’s going on in that moment, why Bucky’s here, in his apartment. Before Ultron happened, he had been searching for the other, for weeks, months, without anything but leads that ran cold after some time, leaving Steve disappointed and hurting, but not hopeless, never hopeless.

And now Bucky’s here in his apartment, sitting at his kitchen table like it’s the most normal thing in the world. It clicks then, the words Bucky used – does this mean he had been listening in on Steve’s conversation with Bruce and Tony? He must’ve been, but how comes JARVIS didn’t register him? Does it matter? Probably not, because oh fuck, Bucky’s HERE and now he’s getting up from the table…

The lightbulb flickers to life and Steve looks at Bucky standing in front of him. The whole situation is surreal, the man he had been hunting down, trying to help him standing right there on the pale linoleum, next to his coffee machine and the sandwich maker Sam insisted Steve should have.

He’s lost the thick layers of black Kevlar, straps and weapons everywhere, has exchanged it for a simple green hoody and a blue jeans. Baseball cap lies on the table, his long hair held back in a messy pony tail. And still, the face, his face is the very same as it has been the day he fell from the train, the day on the bridge and on the helicarrier – and without meaning to, Steve suddenly starts crying, deep sobs that seem to come from his very core and shake his entire body.

There had been no time, no time whatsoever to process the events in DC, those three days that still seemed an entire year in his memory. There had been the chase and then Ultron happened and while Steve never forgot about Bucky while fighting masses of robots, it had been his first priority.

Streams of tears slide down his face, wetting his shirt and his chest convulses painfully on each sob. But there are hands on his face, a figure crouching in front of him and then he’s pulled forward into waiting arms, a flesh and a metal hand tugging maybe too rough, but Steve doesn’t care, could never care.

“It’s okay, Stevie”, that familiar voice murmurs into his hair and it provokes a new wave of tears. “I’ve got you, it’s all fine. From now on, you’ll always have plans for tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.” There’s a slight tremble in Bucky’s voice as well, as he swallows thickly, burying his face into Steve’s hair and relaxes for the first time in decades.

“Always.”


End file.
